A lawyer and consumer rights campaigner has accused Sainsbury’s stores in Bristol of ‘intentionally mis-advertising’ its prices, because the supermarket displays discounts the day before they actually come into force. Adam Potter said he has been investigating the discount practices for more than a year at two Sainsbury’s stores – the one on Whiteladies Road in Clifton and the other at Winterstoke Road in Ashton – and has now published the results of his investigations.
Sainsbury’s initially agreed that it was ‘not fair’ on their customers, but have since denied it is a regular practice and policy. Mr Potter claimed Sainsbury’s was breaching the 2008 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations in the way it marks up the items on shelves for its weekly discounts and deals.
He said he first became aware last summer that, from around 6pm every Tuesday, staff at the Clifton Down Sainsbury’s would begin to label many items as being on promotion, including through the Nectar card scheme. But the deals and prices weren’t available at the tills until the store opened on the Wednesday morning.
“After 6pm, staff would change the price codes of thousands of items while the supermarket was still open,” he said. “This means that many items labelled as being on promotion, were in fact full price. I later identified the same issue at multiple stores. This policy distorts consumer choice.
“For over a year, I have been investigating how Sainsbury’s has intentionally mis-advertised on-shelf prices and charged customers complete different prices at the till, across over 2,000 price codes, in breach of basic consumer law. This is not by accident.”
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Mr Potter, who stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate in Bedminster in this year’s Bristol City Council elections, said he first raised the issue with Sainsbury’s back in September 2023. “Research shows that 48 per cent of people avoid undiscounted brands,” added Mr Potter.
He claimed: “Not only unethical, this practice is contrary to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Furthermore, overcharging customers based on their expectations during a cost of living crisis disproportionately impacts those less well-off who rely on promotional discounts, and those who rely on staffed checkouts, such as the elderly and disabled.”
Sainsbury’s initially acknowledged it shouldn’t be happening and apologised. In response to a first complaint, Sainsbury’s told Mr Potter: “I have advised the store, and they will internally look into this matter, as we agree this (is) not fair on our customers.”
Mr Potter said Sainsbury’s then declined to inform him of the outcome of his complaint, and he persevered, and continued to monitor the price displays going up on a Tuesday evening, even though the discounts weren’t available at the tills until the Wednesday morning.
He said he continued to ask Sainsbury’s about the practice, and pointed out he found it was happening at the Winterstoke Road store in Ashton too. In December last year, Sainsbury’s told him it was believed to be an isolated incident, because no one else was complaining.
In a response to Mr Potter Sainsbury’s said: “We have liaised with our colleagues across the business and have confirmed that if there were to be a widespread pricing issue, we would expect to see a large volume of complaints. We have not seen this.
“Similarly, it is possible for our tills to be affected by network issues which can cause delays to updates. We would also expect a large array of colleague and customer complaints in this scenario. We have also not seen this.”
Sainsbury’s then confirmed it was the policy to distribute promotional tickets the night before discounts came into force, but it wasn’t supposed to happen when the shop was still open.
“Our policy is to distribute promotional tickets on Tuesday evenings ahead of price changes on Wednesday mornings,” the store told Mr Potter in an email.
“At this time, our tills will also be updated. It is not our policy to do this early, or when customers would still be shopping in our stores. We have liaised with our Operations Team and have ensured that this policy is refreshed in the minds of our Clifton Down colleagues.”
Mr Potter claimed the explanation provided to him by Sainsbury’s was ‘implausible’. He said: “To be clear, this policy applies to price decreases and price increases, price codes are going out that don’t go ‘live’ until the following day. I’ve found the issue to be most stark on alcohol products.”
Mr Potter said he’s been told the staff at Sainsbury’s put the discount prices up early on a Tuesday evening because there are so many to do. Bristol Live contacted Sainsbury’s about Mr Potter’s report and a response is still awaited.
Supermarket pricing deals are in the spotlight after a report by consumer group Which? Last month highlighted ‘murky and confusing’ loyalty pricing practices across the industry – albeit in a different way to the claims made by Mr Potter.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute, which represents Trading Standards departments in every local authority in the country, called for improved protections for customers to ‘ensure shoppers are not misled’.
The Which? report found that many retailers, including Boots, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Superdrug and Co-op would raise the prices of products for a short period of time, before they were ‘reduced’ for customers signed up to the loyalty scheme.